Can I Read that Podcast? (Thing #20)

I do love my iPod – it has my relaxing music for airplane travel (ah, my traveling days are so much better with music) and my upbeat music for working out. I wish I could listen to it more, but with two small kids I usually need my ears available to listen for trouble.

If I had more time for listening, I would definitely be downloading NPR. So many great programs! I did some browsing and found some radio favorites, like Whad’ya Know?, as well as some new things, like In Character. The Podcast Directory is also full of fun stuff, like Grammar Girl.

Once I found Grammar Girl and realized I could add it to my feedreader, where I check my RSS feeds daily (rather than my iPod, which I update infrequently), I started to poke around the site a little more. When I found the Grammar Girl written transcript I was in heaven – I’d much rather read it than hear it (I did listen to one five minute clip, which I could concentrate on for oh, three minutes). Now I’ve added a bunch of podcasts to my feedreader, where I can either read the transcript or listen to the podcast on the computer, whichever I feel like at the time. 

My excitement over the written transcripts of what is supposed to be an auditory experience was a good reminder of the power of learning styles – just as I am print oriented, many of my students are auditory oriented and learn better from the spoken word.

Side note: A great use for podcasting are feeds to help people learn languages. The Podcast Directory has lots of programs on different languages. These would be a great supplement to classroom instruction.